Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W. Va.) tells National Review Online that she will decide on whether to run for the U.S. Senate by early next week.

Earlier today, Gov. Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) tapped Carte Goodwin, his former counsel, to succeed the late senator Robert Byrd in the upper chamber. Goodwin will hold the seat until a special election is held. Manchin would like to see the special election held in November, and the state legislature is currently considering his proposal to allow for a fall vote. Manchin, a popular two-term governor, is reportedly seriously mulling a run.

Will Moore Capito run? “There are still a lot of unknowns,” she says, in reference to the status of Manchin’s special-election proposal. She notes that the “compressed time frame” between now and November is also on her mind. So is state election code, which appears to block Moore Capito from running for reelection to the House and in a special election simultaneously.

While Moore Capito is quick to say that she welcomes Goodwin to Washington, she remains unhappy with how Manchin handled the appointment. “[The state legislature] is refashioning the law for [Manchin] right now,” she says. “They are doing it so [Manchin] gets what he wants. West Virginians recognize that for what it is. West Virginians don’t like coronations.” Manchin, she adds, can be defeated: “Nobody is unbeatable or inevitable.” For now, Rasmussen shows Manchin leading in a potential matchup with Moore Capito:

Over the weekend, Moore Capito, a five-term incumbent, says she will “look at everything” and will continue to have conversations with GOP leaders in Washington. Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tells C-SPAN that he has reached out to the Mountain State congresswoman. “I think we’ll have a competitive candidate,” he says. “Governor Manchin would have voted for the stimulus. He supported the health care bill. Those are unpopular policies in a state like West Virginia that has about a 35 percent approval rating for the president.”

The “stakes are big,” Moore Capito tells us, with the Obama administration “out of line” with West Virginian values. Republicans, she reckons, have a “good chance” of picking up the seat — regardless of when the special election is held and regardless of who runs. As USA Today notes, however, Moore Capito is the Republican with the best shot at beating Manchin:

Capito would start the race with a larger warchest. Judith Ingram of the Federal Election Commission tells [USA Today] that Manchin would not be permitted to transfer the approximately $150,000 left over from his 2008 gubernatorial race to a federal campaign. Capito, as a candidate for federal office, would have no such problems. According to a campaign finance report filed yesterday, she’s got $572,000 in her campaign coffers.

Besides Moore Capito, John Raese, a Morgantown businessman, is also considering a run. He ran against Byrd in 2006 and came close to toppling Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W. Va.) in 1984.